This section is intended to provide a background or context to the invention recited in the claims. The description herein may include concepts that could be pursued, but are not necessarily ones that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, what is described in this section is not prior art to the description and claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
From e-commerce transactions to email exchanges to text messaging on a phone, communicating in a secure way is taken for granted by most individuals. But a lot of communication channels are not in fact secure and can be attacked by determined adversaries. For example, communication channel security can be compromised as a result of government restrictions, corporate missteps, privacy mishaps, programming errors, etc. These mistakes or loopholes can lead to severe consequences for end users, from fraud to privacy infringement. Though secure connection within the browsers through SSL/TLS is the norm in banking and e-commerce transactions, loopholes exist.
Mobile apps can steal private information from unsuspecting users. In developing nations, where mobile banking is taking off in a big way, the underlying GSM security layer is often insecure. Systems can be vulnerable to fraud due to a variety of security loopholes. In some countries such as India, GSM encryption is banned by the government so all the SMS messages are sent in cleartext, practically an invitation to thieves. These and other risks can lead to insecure communication channels.
A need exists for providing secure interactions between mutually suspicious parties over unencrypted and insecure networks.